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Michigan teacher salaries continue to drop for the fifth year in a row

The Center for Educational Performance and Information released new data showing that the average salary for Michigan public school teachers has decreased from the previous year, 2014-15. The average salary for a Michigan public school teacher was $61,978. For the 2015-16 school year, the average salary dropped to $61,875. The average pay is calculated by dividing the total cost of salaries by the number of full-time-equivalent teachers.

What is even more worrisome is that this salary drop is unfortunately a trend. The average public school teacher salary peaked in the 2009-10 year with $63,024 and has been on the decline since the 2011-12 year. That's five years in a row, folks.

There are a couple of reasons to why this trend exists. In many cases, Baby Boomers with high salaries are retiring and being replaced with new teachers that don't cost as much. Another is that raises have been minimal the past couple years.

The new data also showed that Macomb County has the highest average teacher salary with $71,532, followed by Washtenaw County with $66,747, and then Oakland County with $66,746. Kalamazoo and Saginaw County were at the low-end of average salaries, landing in the mid-50K area.